Caryatic: Difference between revisions

|posteriori=Proto-Indo-European

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--><!-- Design goals, inspiration, ideas, who speaks it?, when was it created?, where does it come from?, any peculiarities? -->

The language was never fully complete, and much has been lost. As a result, much of this article will be necessarily vague or uncertain.

The original inspiration was to "reverse engineer" the reconstruction of Indo-European  from its daughter languages—which felt like an amazing new idea at the time, but which I now know as one of the most common sorts of conlang. I had actually attempted this a couple times before ('''ðɛ̃ʃwa ɛ̃nɛ̃nõta''', "'''Indo-Tonal'''), but never with the depth of knowledge I had acquired from my graduate-level Historical Linguistics classes.

==== Involvement of other conlangers ====

Among other conlangers, the following have been involved in some way:

* '''[[user:Nicomega|Nicomega]]''' probably first learned of the language in the mid 20-aughts, but never got to see all the materials. He was enjoying trying to piece things together from the fragments I gave him, and as of April 2014 was even working on a "Caryatic Report," writing up a description of the language, like some sort of scholar working from limited ancient evidence. He therefore is simultaneously excited and disappointed to see me posting a fullish description here.

* Indo-European

** Samasian

****'''Caryatic''' (Detailed)

****[[Bataic]] (sketched)

**** '''Aduric''' (roughly sketched)

**** '''Melavian''' (roughly sketched)

*** [[Elerain]] (sketched)

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Of the three non-Caryatic Samasian languages, the only one described in any detail was Bataic, Caryatic's nearest relative. Bataic is the native language of the ''Alfagīnakā''<ref>My notes on Bataic are, unfortunately, incomplete. In particular, they predate whatever I decided the outcomes of the syllabic resonants would be. As a result, the file lists the Bataic name for ''Alfagīnakā'' as "''ælfag?næka''." Thing is, I would have expected that /g/ to lenite to zero, ''*Ælfa?næka''. I'm not sure if I'm right now or was right then.</ref> region, which has been under Caryatic rule for "nearly 200 years." The capital of Alfagīnakā, from which Bataic gets its name, is ''Bātavaiks'' (Bataic ''Ɛbatawækar''), in turn named after its patron goddess ''Bātā'' (''Ɛbata'').

<!-- ***Phonology*** -->

** ''Trasin''

** ''Lābusās''

** ''Alfagīnakā'' (province)

*** ''Bātavaiks'' (provincial capital)

*** ''Lākas'' (imperial capital)

*** ''Turukaims''<ref>The name ''Turukaims'' has the unusual honor of being accepted in the canon, despite being coined by David Salo rather than myself. It appeared on one of his proposals for a Caryatic alphabet, which was supposedly based on the "Turukaims Stele."</ref>

{{Multicol-break}}

* '''''Asūyā'''''

** ''Timilās''

** ''Suardā''

** ''Mādapīsāyā''

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| ''u'' [w]

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| ''i'', ''y'' [j]

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*# Nasals assimilate to the place of the following sound.

{| class="wikitable"  

!  

<!--===Prosody===-->

===Accent===

The accent is probably pitch-based, rather than stress-based, but this is uncertain.<ref>In fact, this idea is very recent, and is based mainly on the fact that when David Salo attempted [[#Letter to The Salos|to read Caryatic outloud]] (December 2013—January 2014) he sounded much more convincing using a pitch accent than a stress accent.</ref>  It is assigned as follows:

===Phonotactics===-->

<!-- Explain the consonant clusters and vowel clusters that are permissible for use in the language. For example, "st" is an allowed consonant cluster in English while onset "ng" isn't. -->

==Morphology==

=== Nouns ===

This is the most common declension class.

===== Masculine =====

{| class="wikitable"  

! colspan=2 |

|-

! Oblique

|}

|-

! Oblique

|}

===== Neuter =====

|-

! Oblique

|}

! colspan=2 | ''r/n''-stem

! ''mn̥''-stem

|-

! gānās<br/>"clan"

! numir<br/>"lung"

! kanma<br/>"spell"

|-

! rowspan=3 | Singular

| numir  

| kanma

|-

! Genitive

| numanas  

| kanmanas

|-

! Oblique

| numir  

| kanma

|-

! rowspan=3 | Plural

| numanā  

| kanmanā

|-

! Genitive

| numanam

| kanmanam

|-

! Oblique

| numanā  

| kanmanā

|}

==== ''u''-stems ====

! Neuter

|-

! turu<br/>"beech"

|-

|-

! Oblique

| turuā?

|}

|-

! Oblique

|}

==== Demonstrative pronouns ====

The language presumably has other demonstratives, but they have yet to be described.

| tiⁿs

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=== Postpositions ===

===Letter to The Salos===

:Ti taisam Kaimānam Pirâda-an āsmi. Sas vaiks anāï “''Hell''” nāma-sānt ādi-ga. Au sī pirâdā a “upānā” au kavānā âdi-ga. Ti mama dimba-sa garfu-ga. Tād āh nāma “Kāriātikā” âdi-ga. Igu tua ī-sa, tāssānt ī “Indaurupayā” âdi, garfu-ga. Tū pid hāsi-ra? Tū tī dimba gankasi-ra?

: ''Justin Mansfield to the Salos''

Pronunciation:

: Yūdīs Masfīus<ref name="Masfīus"/> tās Salūnas-ad

:

: Ti taisam Kaimānam Pirâda-an āsmi.

:

: Sas vaiks anāï “''Hell''" nāma-sānt âdi-ga.

# Sâ nâks dikâs^[SIC] tis guarkan bântias-a raudî-ga,<br/>[sɑːˈnɑːkʰs tiˈkʰɑ̃ː tisˈkwar̥ʲkam ˈpɑːn̥tʰjaza rʲawˈtiːka]

# Is sama siyinkâ akuarin âghârfî-pâ, [............] pâpi-ga.<br/>[is sama zijĩ'kʰɑː ˈɦakʰwarʲin ˈɑːkxɑːrʲviːpɑː] ...... [ˈpʰɑːpʰika]

# Sâ âh anitû di-ta numanâ, tân-da âpa bâaisî.<br/>[sɑːˈɦaːɣ aniˈtʰuː titʰa numaˈnɑː tɑ̃ːta 'ɦɑːpʰa 'pɑːɦajziː]

# Au sâ flaus dikâs^[SIC] tis savas sinktuas^[SIC] tâtikas-ân dâmâî-ga.<br/>[aw zɑː'vlaws tikɑ̃ː tisˈsaβas 'sĩkʰtʰwɑː 'tʰɑːtʰikʰazɑ̃ː 'tɑːmɑːɦiːka]

== External Links ==

* [http://cals.conlang.org/language/caryatic/ Caryatic] on CALS

== Notes ==

[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:Indo-European languages]]